Man Seeks $29,000 To Help Sick Friend

CASSELBERRY — With Bill Grier's disabling illness, pulmonary fibrosis, keeping a positive mental outlook is just as important as feeding oxygen to his scarred lungs.

That isn't always easy when Grier, 51, is confined to his home -- as he is most of the time because he must breathe pure oxygen from a concentrator machine 24 hours a day. Bottled oxygen for trips is expensive, and his wife, Phyllis, must struggle to put a wheelchair and equipment into their car.

To try to help him become more mobile, an old friend, Winter Springs Realtor Tom Binford, has offered to help raise the $29,000 necessary to buy a van equipped with a hydraulic wheelchair lift.

Raising the money among his friends will be no trouble, Binford says, as long as the donations are tax-deductible. That can be accomplished easily by channeling the money through a civic organization that has a tax exemption number from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Binford asked the Casselberry Rotary Club to act as the nominal sponsor for his fund-raising efforts, but found that it cannot help yet because its application for a tax exemption number is pending.

''We'd be delighted to help'' when the number is received, said club president George Karcher, adding that it could arrive ''almost any day.''

Binford said he ''just got disgusted'' when board members of the Winter Springs Sertoma Club, which already has a tax exemption number, refused to help because of concerns about filing paperwork with the IRS. A special form must be filed with the IRS by civic organizations that raise more than $25,000 in one year.

Bill Daucher, the club's secretary-treasurer, said Monday that two accountants who are members of the club's board of directors, recommended that the organization not get involved after hearing of problems experienced by a Sertoma Club in Apopka that raised more than $25,000 one year.

Daucher said the IRS launched an investigation and required that club to file forms for the previous five years. He added that help from a congressman was required to straighten out the problems.

''They were just afraid of it,'' Daucher said of board members' concern about getting involved in such a large fund-raising project.

''I'm not worried about raising the money,'' said Binford, estimating that it could be done in two or three weeks. ''We're going to get him that van.''

Grier, who served five years as Casselberry mayor and six more years as a city councilman, was forced to sell his barbershop last summer -- after borrowing money to expand and relocate it -- when the progressive disease struck him down suddenly.

Though his home is paid for, he is without an income until disability benefits begin arriving next February. He said that under federal rules he will not be allowed government medical benefits for two years after that.

''The most degrading thing to me is to have been a community leader for almost 20 years and then have to go begging for food stamps,'' Grier said.

What hurts even more is that old friends have all but forgotten him. Rarely does anyone call or stop by, he said.

''Maybe they don't know what to say,'' Mrs. Grier said.

He lost 33 pounds in four months, but his condition has stabilized and he goes to respiratory therapy twice a week.

''You go from day to day. You have good days and bad days,'' Grier said. ''You just have to do the best you can.''